Participants in the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace16 conference in Seattle on June 21, 2016, watch a live video of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-34) is launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. The PSLV-C34 Wednesday successfully launched 20 Satellites in a single flight, an ISRO press release said.

Seattle connection (from news release): Seattle-based "Spaceflight, the leading provider of integrated launch services for small satellites, today announced it has successfully launched a flock of 12 Planet Dove satellites from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The 12 spacecraft are shoebox-sized satellites that will be delivered into lower Earth orbit to provide imaging data." (R Senthil Kumar /Press Trust of India via AP) less

Participants in the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace16 conference in Seattle on June 21, 2016, watch a live video of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV ... more

Image 2 of 7

People watch as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-34) is launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. The PSLV-C34 Wednesday successfully launched 20 Satellites in a single flight, an ISRO press release said.

Seattle connection (from news release): Seattle-based "Spaceflight, the leading provider of integrated launch services for small satellites, today announced it has successfully launched a flock of 12 Planet Dove satellites from India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The 12 spacecraft are shoebox-sized satellites that will be delivered into lower Earth orbit to provide imaging data."

People watch as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-34) is launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, India, Wednesday, June 22, 2016. The

In this photo made from video provided by Blue Origin, New Shepard, an unmanned rocket, prepares to land in an area near Van Horn, Texas, Sunday, June 19, 2016. The private space company run by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has completed its fourth successful unmanned rocket launch and safe landing in West Texas using the same vehicle. (Blue Origin via AP)

In this photo made from video provided by Blue Origin, New Shepard, an unmanned rocket, prepares to land in an area near Van Horn, Texas, Sunday, June 19, 2016. The private space company run by Amazon CEO Jeff

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday morning, June 15, 2016, carrying a pair of commercial communications satellites. After three successes, a leftover SpaceX rocket booster crashed Wednesday while trying to land on an ocean barge after the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched two satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Craig Bailey/Florida Today via AP)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Wednesday morning, June 15, 2016, carrying a pair of commercial communications satellites. After three successes, a leftover SpaceX

Caption by Vulcan Aerospace: The Stratolaunch air-launch platform is designed to transport satellite payloads to orbit. In 2011, Paul G. Allen initiated the development of this new system to challenge the current model of orbital launch and to offer more flexible and cost effective access to space. Stratolaunch is an innovative approach to providing convenient and affordable space access for a wide range of missions and payloads. The Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft is constructed using state-of-the-art composite materials in order to be light, strong, and fuel efficient. Once complete, Stratolaunch will have the largest wing span of any airplane ever built and will be the world's largest composite aircraft.

Caption by Vulcan Aerospace: The Stratolaunch air-launch platform is designed to transport satellite payloads to orbit. In 2011, Paul G. Allen initiated the development of this new system to challenge the

A big wet kiss for shy Seattle as space industry gathers at #NewSpace16

1 / 7

Back to Gallery

At one of the world's premiere conferences for the fast-emerging private space industry, you'll find a rocketing passion for Mars and a bean counter's grim reality of cost per ounce of payload on the next rocket off this 'berg, all within a couple of conversations ... sometimes the same conversation.

The industry is building, testing and in some cases already flying reusable rockets, air-launch platforms, satellites, asteroid mining operations and systems for sending humans into orbit, to the moon and to Mars. It's also dangerous, expensive and likely to cycle through periods of boom and bust ... just like every other industry.

Seattle is either the epicenter of it all or the closest thing to one, even though launching rockets from here is unlikely, since there a handy, big ol' desert southeast of us. Here's a brief list of the major Seattle-area space companies that are making reality out of space dreams:

Boeing (of course)

Spaceflight Industries

Blue Origin

Vulcan Aerospace

Planetary Resources

Aerojet Rocketdyne

and the local offices of SpaceX ...

In fact, one entire panel discussion was dedicated to Seattle's role in all things space. Call it a big, wet smooch on the cheek of the shy Northwest.

Some Oregon Residents Upset at Prospect of Pumping Their Own GasBuzz 60

Doug Baldwin playcallingBy Michael-Shawn Dugar, SeattlePI

Van Crashes Into Pedestrians Injuring SixAssociated Press

US military to accept transgender recruits after Trump drops appealEuronews

Snow on Christmas Eve, 2017Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ice carving at WinterfestSeattle Post-Intelligencer

Amtrak derails near OlympiaGrant Hindsley / SeattlePI

Golden retriever meets Darth Vader and EwokSeattle Post-Intelligencer

Panelists Jason Andrews, CEO of Spaceflight Industries, said that while the conference was a great way for local companies to recruit workers, it also serveed as a platform for introverted Seattle to shine a bit:

"The personality of the Northwest is actually not to beat our chests," he told the sold-out, standing-room-only crowd of hundreds. "We're pretty humble people, and what that means is that I think there is a lot more going on here than people realize."

He explained there were three revolutions going on in Seattle: The growing satellite industry; "wiring up the last 4 billion people on the planet. We have a pioneering spirit in cell communications here"; and the kicker, "the ultimate holy grail is about creating a permanent human presence in space. And three of the companies leading that are here, if you count SpaceX. ... Blue Origin and what Jeff (Bezos) is investing in. And, we have what Vulcan is investing in with Stratolaunch.

"So, from that stand point, I think the epicenter is here."

One sign of that success, of course, is putting butts in seats. As panelist Fred Wilson with Aerojet Rocketdyne's Redmond facility, the world's leading supplier of in-space propulsion, put it:

"One of the negatives associated with the growth of the space business in the Seattle area is the competition for resources. We've lost a number of people to new startups in the Seattle area but I think overall that's a big positive for our industry and for the Seattle area. We have a much more robust space employment environment now. We're much less susceptible to the reductions like Boeing had in the '70s (when the billboard saying "Will the last person leaving SEATTLE -- Turn out the lights" surfaced). Boeing has announced they are going to be reducing their workforce over the next several months and I think a lot of us are excited about that because those of us who are hiring are eager to get people. So, I think we are in a much better position to handle those kinds of adjustments in individual companies."

But how robust is this new industry?

"New space" — aka the emergent private spaceflight industry — is not a formed industry yet, said Don Weidner, who runs Formidable Ventures, an investment business focused on technology such as robotics and artificial intelligence that is now branching into private space companies such as Planetary Resources and BlueDot.

New space is still in the early stages of actually building the platforms that will become a fully formed industry. Weidner said during a panel discussion on the topic that he still gets raised eyebrows when he tells his peers that he's investing in "space."

I caught up with him later to explore why an inventor would bother with new space.

"I invest in all sorts of things and, generally, an angel investor wants to see a return in five years. With space you have to have a longer vision, but I'm not looking for a 50 percent return. I'm looking for a 10,000 percent return. And I think space can do that," he said.

We chatted just briefly about the aspirational future of space travel for humans.

"Two hundred years out, we're on Mars, we're on the moon, we're on space stations, and I think it's fairly routine. But not in the next 50 years," he said. In fact, he added, he's "mostly interested in companies that want to do everything robotically or remotely ... people in space is a tricky one. You have space tourism, the short visit and then coming back. Safety is the top issue there; beyond that I think there is a very small audience for humans in space right now."

And since he was cornered, I wondered about the potential of Seattle as a space hub:

"We have the heritage of Boeing, of course, and then the combination of literally generations at Boeing combined with the tremendous software and hardware technologies that's newer in the last few decades. So, you have talent from old and new aerospace combined with cutting-edge technology. I think that does make this a special area. Silicon Valley has its own technology leaps ahead of us, but not with aerospace. They don't have the history or generations of people involved in aerospace."